Tag: comedy

Thaana Serndha Koottam is supposedly the Tamil adaptation of the 2013 Hindi Film Special 26 with a few changes and additional side spice adding stories. Suriya plays Inyan who is the center of the story and is a typical commercial hero who can dance, fight, romance, deliver punch dialogs and even pull off comic sequences with ease. Keerthi Suresh has virtually no part to play except in a couple of comic scenes and dance in more than a few plot-interrupting songs.

The cast includes comic stalwart veterans like Thambi Ramayya, Senthil, yogi babu, Satyan, RJ Balaji who have very little scope to even fully form their character but the most tragic waste is Brahmanadam who is given a screen space of about 30 seconds. Everything is rushed and easily out of focus as if everyone including the script is working in their spare time to accommodate some other main project. Special mention of the veteran actor Karthik who plays an eccentric yet brilliant investigative officer. He plays his role with surprising vigor and dawns the character to a T.

Lets take a moment here for Suriya. Suriya has time and again set high expectations over the years with Nandha, Kaakha Kaakha, Pitamaghan, Gajini and a few others but last couple of years things are not really working out or him with the commercial hero approach, ok…he tried and kudos for that but as intelligent viewers we are unable to take in another 24 or Mass or Singham even. We demand the mind-blowing actor that Suriya actually is to be back – in the remake direction if necessary.

Vignesh Shivan has directed and also scripted the movie. Previously he has given us hits like VIP and Naanum rowdydhaan. The entire experience is 2 Hr and 18 min and editing is non-existent by Sreekar Prasad, there are so many slack moments that it could have been easily wrapped up under 2 hours.

The background score is off track, interrupting and sometimes even irritating. The dialogs sometime even are hard to hear because of the disturbing eeriness. Anirudh Ravichandran is clearly distracted and/or disinterested and the songs and too long and meaningless to the narrative.

In conclusion – Watch Special 26 instead. With subtitles if language is a barrier.

This is a ‘something for everyone’ kind of flick. The concept of Jumanji was introduced to us by Robin Williams starrer movie with the same name in 1981. However, this not a sequel – it is a reboot. So it’s a standalone movie which would make sense in its own way even if you have not watched the original.

Jumanji is a board game which converts itself to a video game and calls out to the world with its drum beats and takes the players into its own world, to be released back only when the game is finished. With this premise, four youngsters gets pulled into the game and gets turned into Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan.

The entire experience is an Indiana Jones style fantasy-adventure loaded with hilarious comedy. Jack Black as the mean girl turned middle aged cartographer (map reading expert) is amazing, Kevin hart pulls of his usual high pitch slapstick comedy with grace, but the expected show stealer is Dwayne Johnson as Dr. Bravestone. ‘The rock’ is fantastic as the videogame playing self-doubting teenage nerd.

The story isn’t just another over the top action comedy, it does not only focus on the saviour and his sidekick and love interest. It does justice to the characters individually and also to the creative premise. All the game avatars are very well defined including the NPCs (non playing characters)

Director Jake Kasden has done a commendable job and part of the credit goes to the writing by Chris Mckenna. Cinematography by ‘the maze runner series’ expert Gyula Pados is a treat to watch. Mark helfrich edits the movie to less than 2 hours and that makes all the difference.

The first question that arises here is – what Mubarkan has to offer which Judwaa, Duplicate, Ram aur Shyam, Seeta aur Geeta and even Rowdy Rathore could not offer. The answer to this question is simply – nothing.

The story is predictable, slapstick comedy is boring, the narration is ordinary, and editing is non-existent. The movie has an official runtime of 2 Hours and 36 minutes. With the kind of content, it could have been wrapped up within the 2 Hours. Ileana D Cruz, Athiya shetty just sits pretty and almost does nothing. In fact, Neha Sharma has a far more confident screen presence than both the leading ladies. Arjun Kapoor does his best. The effort that is put in by Arjun is visibly seen. After ‘half girlfriend’ and this – he is desperate for a hit performance. Anil Kapoor has floored his character as usual. He nails it as the eccentric, go-happy uncle. Ratna Pathak Shah and Pavan Malhotra are impressive as well.

Anees Bazmee is the same guy who got the ball rolling in ‘Welcome’. He has come a long way down from there. Rajesh Chawla is the writer and before this he has written four other movies which has flopped and fifth time also does not seem to work.

The Soundtrack boasts of big names like Sonu Nigam, Armaan Malik, Tulsi Kumar, Vishal Dadlani and other stalwarts but the only song that works is ‘hawa hawa’ by Mika Singh. Rest all songs are to be played as background music at dead parties.

Set in the beautiful city of Paris the story shuttles between the 1 year gap showing the relashionship-development between Dharam and Shyra. The flashback and present transitions are signified by hum-tum style drawings and feels a bit unnecessary to the screenplay.

Dharam is a stand-up comic from Delhi recently arrived in Paris and Shyra is a free-spirited girl brought up in France by her Indo-French chef parents. The relationship starts with a dare and the free-spirit modern attitude is portrayed quite effectively.

The cast and crew have quite a few French involvements and the lead actors have adopted their characters very well. When it comes to the intimate scenes both look at ease and the onscreen chemistry is pleasant to watch. The director is very seasoned in love stories and hence is almost flawless, editing is very efficient. Music by Vishal-Shekhar duo along with Mikey McCleary is quite refreshing.(BTW…Mickey is the Brother in Law of Lucky Ali) ‘Nashe Si Chad Gayi’ by Arijit and ‘Ude Dil Befikre’ by Benny Dayal are already topping the charts. The surprise number ‘khulke dhulke’ by Punjabi Rock-star Gippy Grewal has turned out quite good.

Both the lead pair can dance quite well and has done justice to all the peppy songs

In conclusion this is a feel good love story which reminds you of ‘love aaj kal’, ‘Friends with benefits’ and maybe a bit of ‘The ugly truth’.

For those netizens who are still unaware of the original series concept please do not read further and browse through the various channels in you tube and come back in a few hours.

(After a few hours….) Good, you are back, and thanks all others who were waiting patiently so far, lets continue, then.

Permanent roommates narrate the story of Tania and Mikesh (Collectively called Tankesh) playing relationship snake and ladder throughout the 2 seasons. The S01E01 was released with a humble beginning on Oct 29 2014 of just 14.30 long. So convenient that it’s like someone could watch the episode while taking a leisure trip to the washroom. However, as the popularity and the sponsorship increased the story line grape-vined to parallel stories (some relevant others not) the final episode of season2 was 55:28 long. If you are still in the washroom, then that’s another issue of course.

Suddenly midway through Season2 TVF decided to launch their own app and website and made the last 2 episodes exclusive, this was a gamble because it was no longer in youtube platform for all to see but people had to download the app or go to their website to see them. This gamble paid off as the android app download soared to 1 million within a short time with high rating.

In spite of all the marketing and repeated threatening to like, share & comment in every video the actual reason for the popularity is the series itself. The story line is quite simple and very much relatable to almost all target viewers. The script and dialog is absolutely fantastic. The casting and characterization is very elaborate and meticulously executed (Even a cab has a name) The only reluctant improvement in the series could have been the length of the episodes and few episodes could have stayed on track of the story – like S02E04 titled ‘dinner’

In conclusion, very high standard and hilarious series with good mix of light and heavy subjects flawlessly picturized, there is a takeaway for everyone. Watery eyes are guaranteed – sometime from rib tickling laughter and other times from heart wrenching moments.

Verdict – If you can take an Ola then why rent a bus for the same? didn’t get it? then watch it now. In fact, save it offline and show it to your grandchildren when they are old enough.